Starting shortly after the turn of the century in the early 1900s, there are reports and anecdotes of many strange objects that graced the evolutionary tree we now credit for providing modern day brushes. Among those objects were sandpaper, whisk brooms and actual fly swatters. (1, 2) It’s William Ludwig II who is said to have had a letter establishing the official creation date of brushes via patent:

“I am happy to inform you that they were invented by two co-inventors Alliston and Weinstein in 1913 as “Fly Killers.” I have this patent in my files. They look very much as they do today.”

In the early 20s, Baby Dodds claimed to have been one of the earliest, albeit reluctant, users of actual brushes, ultimately preferring to change his technique with drumsticks to achieve the desired sound. 

Different makers have offered their take on best design, from light- to heavier weight gauge wire, different materials for the hand piece, and various takes on other features (e.g., to add a ball at the end or not to add a ball). Aaaand, different problems have ensued, for example, hand pieces that were too brittle or hand pieces made of a material that became sticky over time, not getting the desired sound out of the wire, and the inability to set and hold a desired spread. Some drummers would bend the main rod so that the spread they desired locked into place; some would step on their brushes, using their foot to bend the wires in place.

Commercially, Leedy, Ludwig and Slingerland advertised them as “Jazz Sticks” or “Synco Jazz Sticks” in their very early catalogs. Brushes have been with us for a long time by now, and have had ups and downs in popularity. Many Jazz drummers of the 1960s certainly believed this new, garish Rock ’n Roll would be the end of these wire gadgets, but every generation of drummers seems to find them useful both in tradition and new musical settings. Whether back scratcher, fly swatter, whisk or fan — and whatever the exact birth and evolution of brushes was — the ability to create a softer, evocative shushing, scratching, or pat-tapping sound, was now a part of the drummer’s performative vernacular and it was here to stay.

Inasmuch as we don’t have a clear view into exactly when brushes as we now know them were fully a part of the stick bag, we also don’t know what gauge wire the early brushes used. Reading through METRONOME, DOWNBEAT, and other music magazines of the 1920's to 1930's makes it clear that details of that sort never really filtered into the marketing copy from manufacturers. However, drummers did seem to be interested in brushes’ adjustment features, such as preventing deforming the wires into clumps and keeping uniform the spread of the wires once set in position.